Nonprofit news outfits that have sprung up across the country to fill gaps left by commercial media have hit an unexpected barrier in establishing themselves as providers of local news and information: the Internal Revenue Service. As many as a dozen journalism startups, most of them run largely by volunteers and accepting no advertising, have had their requests to be recognized as tax-exempt organizations delayed for many months and, in some cases, years.

The Arizona man indicted on charges of embezzling federal funds that were given to start a Native radio station pleaded not guilty April 26 in the District of Arizona U.S. District Court, according to online court records. The attorney representing the defendant, John Bittner, said he may file a motion for Bittner to be mentally evaluated. A jury trial was set for June 5. As Current reported April 23, Bittner is alleged to have used $322,364 in Public Telecommunications Facilities Program funds on personal expenses, including a car, medical costs, child support payments and a trip to Las Vegas. After his indictment, Bittner attempted suicide and spent time in a hospital in Flagstaff, Ariz.,

Two years after its launch as a new online news organization covering the San Francisco region, the Bay Citizen is reconsidering its mission and editorial focus under new management. As of May 1, it merged operations with the Berkeley-based Center for Investigative Reporting, one of the granddaddies of the nonprofit news world, and ended its editorial partnership with the New York Times. The combined newsroom now marshals a staff of 70 and an annual budget of $11 million for news reporting from the San Francisco Bay Area. But differences between the news organizations’ editorial priorities and funding structures point to many challenges ahead, according to journalists from both the Bay Citizen and CIR.

The 18-year partnership that helped prove there’s an audience for collegiate women’s basketball came to an end last week when the University of Connecticut dumped the state’s public TV network for SportsNet New York, a regional cable network with vastly greater reach than Connecticut Public Television. Women’s basketball has been a ratings winner for CPTV, boosting its membership and underwriting revenues, and President Jerry Franklin moved quickly to try to stem the losses. Two days after UConn announced its new contract with SportsNet, Franklin unveiled a licensing deal with Connecticut Sun of the Women’s National Basketball Association. Broadcasts begin airing May 20 on “CPTV Sports.”

A conference about ideas and creativity provided the latest opportunity for a group of adventurous radio producers to challenge their own inventiveness by producing as much radio as they could in a day and a half. The six producers behind Longshot Radio reconvened in New York May 3 and 4 to create crowd-sourced, socially networked audio in conjunction with the 99% Conference, where speakers discussed how to put ideas into action. Longshot covered the event in conjunction with WNYC’s Radiolab, whose host, Jad Abumrad, was one of the featured speakers. Within 30 hours, Longshot emerged with 75 pieces of raw tape gathered at the conference and contributed via Internet by people in 18 cities in the U.S.

After stints in the cable world as producers and programmers, PBS execs Beth Hoppe and Donald Thoms returned to PBS last August to assist Chief TV Programming Executive John Wilson with primetime scheduling. They’ve also been working closely with producers to craft shows that will help build more audience flow across weeknights. With Hoppe’s expertise in science and nature production, and Thoms’ love of the arts and independent films, the pair brings passion for the programs that cover the breadth of PBS’s variety service, they said during a May 3 interview with Current. Here, the three programmers discuss their progress over the past year and their plans for the coming summer and fall seasons, including: How strategies for presenting arts programs have evolved since last fall’s nine-week festival; How granular Nielsen ratings numbers help them make decisions about commissioning, scheduling and promoting primetime programs; and Why PBS stepped back from its proposal last year to insert promotional breaks into programming.

Know something about antiques? Prove it,” screamed the ad seeking “pickers” for Market Warriors, the long-awaited companion series to PBS’s most popular primetime program, Antiques Roadshow. Though PBS pioneered the concept of reality television with American Family and other cinema verité documentary series, it refrained from adding more reality TV as the genre became a staple of commercial television. But with the coming summer season and beyond, PBS is dipping into the reality game. A trio of unscripted programs — each coproduced by Boston’s WGBH— will premiere within the next year. And each bears at least some resemblance to the formats that have been popularized by commercial television.

NPR, the National Association of Broadcasters and advocates for low-power radio expressed opposing views to the FCC in a proceeding that will shape the future of the commission’s expanding class of low-power FM broadcasters. For the second time since it created the LPFM service in 2000, the FCC has been preparing to accept another round of applications from would-be LPFM operators. In March the commission asked broadcasters and other stakeholders to comment on changes that it may implement before granting the next wave of low-power licenses. The licenses go strictly to noncommercial operators, and so far have permitted stations of only up to 100 watts.

Two of pubcasting’s chief critics on Capitol Hill have revived their bids to end CPB funding. Republican lawmakers Rep. Doug Lamborn (Colo.) and Sen. Jim DeMint (S.C.) circulated letters last week asking colleagues to help them “permanently defund” CPB. They are targeting the $445 million advance-funded appropriation proposed for CPB in 2015. CPB’s requested appropriation “represents no reduction from its prior year appropriation level,” the lawmakers wrote. “While so many Americans are making sacrifices around the country to make ends meet, CPB appears unwilling to do the same.” They said the country is more than $15 trillion in debt, and ending support of CPB “should be one of the easier decisions to make.”

Leaders of Orlando’s WMFE rebuffed a bid from Independent Public Media to purchase its TV station, which had been slated for sale to religious broadcasters until the $3 million deal was withdrawn from the FCC. Ken Devine, IPM’s chief operating officer and former v.p. of media operations of WNET in New York, confirmed to Current that IPM had made an offer, but he declined to share details. WMFE President José Fajardo told Current: “There is no deal between WMFE and Independent Public Media.” Discussions between the parties have ended, he wrote in an email. The sale that Fajardo pursued last year — with Texas-based religious broadcaster Daystar Television — fell apart after the FCC questioned whether the buyer met noncommercial criteria for localism and educational programming (Current, March 26).

In the wake of problems with Mike Daisey’s Apple factory stories on This American Life, the work of author David Sedaris on the show “is undergoing new scrutiny,” reports the Washington Post. “The immediate question,” notes writer Paul Farhi, “is whether Sedaris’s stories are, strictly speaking, true — an important consideration for journalistic organizations such as NPR and programs such as This American Life. A secondary consideration is what, if any, kind of disclosure such programs owe their listeners when broadcasting Sedaris’s brand of humor.” Ira Glass told the Post that no one at TAL was concerned about Sedaris before the problems with Daisey’s reporting.

Here’s a look at the Voice of San Diego’s innovative membership program, “a unique model that raises community engagement to a new level while helping to bring in a different revenue source to the news organization,” according to The Hub, an online resource for nonprofit journalism from the Investigative News Network. Members select one of four levels, each with a different set of benefits such as invitations to member coffees. The program is now in its fifth week and has 1,172 members, with a goal of 5,000 by the end of the year. “It’s a little bit more aggressive than traditional public radio’s definition of members,” said Scott Lewis, c.e.o.

Alvarado, a former APM and CPB exec, is joining the Center for Investigative Reporting The nonprofit news organization announced on May 2 that Alvarado will serve as chief strategy officer and work to expand membership, engage diverse audiences and increase revenue for the San Francisco–based center, the nation’s oldest nonprofit investigative reporting organization. Alvarado also will take a leadership role in the center’s upcoming Knight Foundation–funded YouTube investigative channel. Alvarado departed in March from American Public Media, where he served as senior v.p. for digital innovation for two years. In 2009, he led efforts to bring more diversity and digital innovation to public media as a CPB senior v.p.

As part of This American Life‘s live show last night, comedian and frequent TAL contributor Mike Birbiglia wrote and directed a 6-minute comedic short film featuring Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross. The film — “Fresh Air 2: 2 FRESH, 2 FURIOUS” — stars Gross, parodying her hyper-formal interviewing style to great comedic effect. Ira Glass is a producer of the short, and Glass has also collaborated with Birbiglia on the upcoming film “Sleepwalk With Me.” Incidentally, today marks the 25th anniversary of the day Fresh Air became a daily national NPR program.